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BERC reorganization will mean better delivery of Buffalo's ED programs
February 24, 2010

At last week's State of the City and in the media in the days that followed, Mayor Byron Brown discussed a realignment and reorganization of the City of Buffalo's economic development functions, as well as the Partnership's role in crafting the recommendations. I want to shed some light for you on what we've been doing and why.

Last October, the Partnership volunteered to form a working group to review the City's economic development delivery system with a specific focus on the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corporation (BERC). As you are likely aware, BERC has become a "poster child" for the need for fundamental change in how the City structures and delivers economic development programs. Led by chair, Partnership Board and Executive Committee member Dennis Penman, who also has been serving as acting BERC Executive Director, and staffed by the Partnership's Laura Smith, we were pleased to work with Peter Cammarata, Fred Fadel, Robert Gioia, James Militello, Nancy Peacock, Chuck Rosenow, Larry Rubin, and David Stebbins, James W. Pitts and Brendan Mehaffy to craft recommendations for a better economic development delivery system in the City of Buffalo going forward.

The hard work and focus put in by the working group has been fruitful, as Mayor Brown has committed to implement a vast majority of its recommendations. We give the Mayor much credit for his approach to fixing a situation that has long demanded attention and change - open-minded analysis of the City's programs and outreach to the private sector for best practice advice.

The group's primary recommendation was that all of the City's economic development programs should fall under the Office of Strategic Planning (OSP) and that the Executive Director of OSP should be the chief economic development officer of the City. That would mean that the Department of Economic Development, Permits and Licenses would be restructured to focus on permits, licenses and inspections, and that the City's development agencies be organized and utilized consciously and collectively as "tool providers" delivering the City's economic development objectives - and not as independent agencies. The Mayor took this one step further when he announced BERC would be decommissioned.

In this context, the working group recommended that a new, reorganized OSP (and its programs) be aligned to achieve several objectives critical to economic development and job creation in the City of Buffalo:

• Successful neighborhoods;
• Collaboration among regional economic development entities;
• Reduction of administrative costs and processing delays;
• Sufficient and well-qualified staff;
• Effective partnerships being created among local community-based organizations, City Hall and local foundations;
• A pro-active approach and customer-friendly culture within City Hall being cultivated and marketed.

Obviously these are the broad-based recommendations and more details will be available once the working group's report is formally released. However, these are objectives that the employer community has been working toward since the beginning of the Partnership's NOW campaign in 2001. With the help and leadership of Mayor Brown, there is light at the end of the tunnel - from the perspective of regional economic development as well as that of the end user: employers and residents looking to do business in and with the City of Buffalo.

We often say that there is a great deal of "behind the scenes" work going on here at the Partnership that doesn't get public recognition but is essential and productive. This effort has been one example of this, and I'm pleased to be able to let you know about it.

Andrew J. Rudnick